It's hard to believe, but after much previous travelling and having climbed several hundred mountains, I had never seen an active volcano until now. And without realising it, the first one I chose to see is not just any volcano. IAVCEI, the international body that monitors volcano activity produces an annual list of the 15 most active volcanoes in the world. The list changes as the activity changes, but Mount Merapi (30km north of Yogyakarta) has been at the top ...

Pronounced (and in fact often spelled) Jogjakarta, I love this city. With lots of examples of performing arts, it is the cultural centre of Java. The hypnotizing gamelan orchestra music can be heard everywhere, which sounds like a garden full of wind chimes being blown by some magical wind. There are also the famous leather puppet shows and the Ramayana Ballet to which this music belongs. There are cycle rickshaws and horse drawn carriages to take you to the many...

I was fascinated as I watched the location on my phone tick down from 3 seconds North to exactly 0 degrees, 0 minutes and 0 seconds as I walked the 100 metres or so away from the equator monument. It doesn't take much to amuse me! The white line that I found there, running from East to West was only one metre from where the GPS was showing zero, so this must be the real equator, even though some claim that it has now moved south into the river. The problem with t...

Whilst I was contemplating the different creatures I might find over on the Asian side of the Wallace Line, I found that I had become the centre of attention myself. A group who had befriended me in the morning came scurrying around the blunt end of the ferry carrying the only bench on the five decks. They were bringing it for me. But after fits of laughter, I began to realise why I had been perched on it. Have you seen those plastic characters at theme parks tha...

With visions of cutting a path through dense undergrowth with a machete whilst sweating like a pig, boots full of blood from the leeches, dangerous beasties on every tree branch, I've never been sure if jungle trekking is really for me. But whilst there is some accuracy in these stereotypical images (the guide did have a machete), three days in the rain forest of Lore Lindu was not as harsh, and far more rewarding than I expected. There weren't too many leeches a...